What is a womb twin? 6) A parasitic twin

If you have a parasitic twin attached to your body, then you are not a womb twin survivor but a twin pair, two people in one.  If your parastic twin has been removed, then you are a womb twin survivor.
One girl in India had eight limbs and the extra limbs were removed. ( watch the news here)

The surgeon discussed the forthcoming operation

She can now walk on her remaining two legs and she will be considered as a normal little girl and no longer some kind of a god or circus freak.

Lakshmi can now walk

But in the night when she is alone, will she feel a strange sense of only being half a person? Will she always have a sense of something missing?   This is the commonest character trait of womb twin survivors.
The 10 most common traits are now available as a simple starter quiz, to help people who have no evidence of a twin to find confirmation  of their lifelong feelings, that defy explanation  - until the idea of being a womb twin survivor makes sense of their whole life.

Not sure if you are a womb twin survivor or not? Try the quiz today.

The twin within (1) parasitic twin-a fetus in fetu

When identical twins are formed, one twin begins to develop inside the other, either partially or totally. This is probably the most dramatic example of twinning and  stories of parasitic twins or the fetus in fetu are often to be found in the media.

Here is a study of parasitic twins that has been sensationalised as far as possible:




Here is a good example of how a fetus  in fetu can be made into a good story:



This is a medical anomaly requiring surgical intervention

Yet this is also a sad story of a twin that is not a whole living twin, and therefore the dominant twin will feel a sense of somehow losing out from the twin-twin relationship and also the burden of carrying the weaker twin everywhere with them.

It is important that parents who have consented to have the parasitic twin or the fetus in fetu removed surgically, should bear in mind that the sole survivor, relieved on the physical burden, may still be carrying a psychological burden, a feeling that they have a duty to their twin that is is some way being avoided. Parents should simply bear this in mind and consider the possibility that this psychological effect can be healed, but first it must be acknowledged and understood for what it is.

Surgery is not the end of the story- twinning is a prenatal experience, the effect of which will remain for life, hard-wired into the brain of the survivor.

A parasitic twin, now vanished.

This little boy in India carried his twin as a parasitic set of limbs for many years until it was removed.


THE PARASITIC TWIN

Eight-year-old Indian boy Deepak Kumar Paswaan was born with body parts of his twin attached to the chest. The phenomenon, also known as "conjoined twin syndrome" or "vanishing twin syndrome" occurs when twin fetuses don't completely separate in utero. One ceases to develop and becomes absorbed into the healthy fetus. The undeveloped twin is called parasitic because it is dependent on the body functions of the healthy twin to live.

Deepak was called "octopus boy" by some of the locals and was even accused of being the devil in a human body. Fortunately, thanks to the help of some volunteers, enough money was raised to have the parasitic twin removed.


I wonder if he feels a sense of loss now?

I hear from womb twin survivors who have surgery to remove their twin in the form of a dermoid cyst, teratoma,  foetus in foetu or parasitic body parts, and who feel that sense of mourning and loss after surgery.

Read about how it felt for Deepak (known as octopus boy) to be eight years old with a parastitic twin that twitched in spasms which he could not control.

Read about how the surgery to remove his twin has changed his life.

Oprah Winfrey - womb twin survivor. Proof at last!

Well I've been looking for some medical evidence that Oprah may be a womb twin survivor for many years and I fell over this information today . She has an extra toe on her left foot.

So there we have it:

• A problem with food:-  she has said she abuses food, gets exhausted and uses food to keep going, doesn't rest enough. Thats characteristic of womb twin survivors.
• An extra toe - additional organs limbs, fingers etc are a parasitic twin
• Male energy : like, truckloads of it.....
• Dual personality/Gender confusion - is is she lesbian, straight ? Is she promiscuous or asexual? Lots of unanswered questions about that.
• Narcissism - need I say more? 
• Boundary issues 
• There are two Oprahs, the large noisy fat one and the secret, sensitive, wounded thin one.  She yo-yo's between them  and doesn't understand why.  Its because then she can "be both people" and that keeps her identical twin alive (she of the tiny toe.....) 

Womb twin survivors spend their lives reenacting the life and death of their womb twin. Nothing, not even life itself, is more important than that.

I wonder what Oprah would say if she knew?  Who is going to tell her?

What difference would it make?  Here's Brian (womb twin survivor, USA) on that:

The difference is night and day. More importantly than being cured however, was that this experience happened for a reason. I believe that God wanted me to have this experience to change me and mould my character. Experiences in life can sometimes be bitter, but often the most difficult experiences have the sweetest rewards.  I believe that we who have lost our twins in the womb are destined for something special. Something that our sensitivity and  experience has prepared us for.

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